The year 2015 is significant in genocide history. It is the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the 70th Anniversary of the end of the Jewish Holocaust, and the 40th Anniversary of the Cambodian Genocide.

Cambodia experienced a flourishing musical heyday in the 1960s and 70s, with eclectic musical influences from all over the world. The popular singers of the time incorporated musical genres such as bossa nova, jazz, rock, and later punk rock with traditional Khmer musical styles and dances. Because of their Western influence many of these performers became the target of the Khmer Rouge regime. Yet appropriation of influences from other countries was seen nonjudgmentally by performers and audiences and celebrated as a manifestation of Cambodian creative talent.
Many now question contemporary Cambodian and particularly Cambodian American musical appropriation from American Hip Hop culture and pop music. The last five years have seen the rise of many Cambodian American artists. The “1.5 generation” (those arriving on American soil as children) and the second generation are now voicing the Cambodian experience through their music, addressing community, family, the Khmer Rouge era, the urban poverty struggle, the struggles of being Asian in America,. This paper analyzes these themes expressed by musicians at the first Cambodian American Music Festival held in August 2014 in Los Angeles. The paper will examine the common forces that drive these artists: collaboration, a positive outlook, a strong music community bond, and the need to distinguish themselves from the Asian label to create a specifically Cambodian voice.
http://conference2015.southwestpca.org/content/linda-saphan

This exhibition brings together three diasporic Cambodian artists whose works engage with war, memory, displacement and globalization. Anida Yoeu Ali’s silk screen prints and video installation recall life in a refugee camp following the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Amy Lee
Sanford’s video and photographs share with viewers the process of uncovering a difficult history, the turmoil of the late 1960s and 1970s, as told in letters written by a father she never knew. LinDa Saphan’s drawings of apartment buildings and architectural monuments in current-day Phnom Penh hint at the costs of urban development and global capitalism.

This coming April is Khmer New Year and marks the 40th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge take over of Cambodia. The significance of this timing should be recognized as we create a great opportunity for the Cambodian musicians to share their stories and music with the world.

Don't Think I've Forgotten: Every Record Cover Tell A Story
At the White Rose Lounge, Kolab Sor Hotel, Phnom Penh

The art installation consists of many prints of original Khmer music album covers used in John Pirozzi’s upcoming documentary film Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll. Each elaborate cover is a work of art in it is own right using unique graphic design and color schemes that highlight the golden age of what was Cambodia’s amazing music scene of the time.

WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING AT CHAKTOMUCK THEATRE JANUARY 11th 2014

DON’T THINK I’VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA’S LOST ROCK AND ROLL tracks the twists and turns of Cambodian music as it morphs into rock and roll, blossoms, and is nearly destroyed along with the rest of the country. This documentary film provides a new perspective on a country usually associated with only war and genocide. The film is a celebration of the incredible music that came from Cambodia and explores how important it is to Cambodian society both past and present.

LIVE CONCERT

Live concert following the screening featuring music from the film performed by Sin Chan Chaya, Lorn Hourn from Apsara Band, Hong Samley, Chhom Nimol and the Drakkar Band.

"UNITY" is an art project initiated by Yanese Smith and LinDa Saphan for the Art Festival organized by the Art department of College of Mount Saint Vincent. We asked students to write on a black paper their hope and dreams or anything that would describe them. They would then fold it into any shape of their choice. Together we created this art piece.